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Donations to US based NGOs in international development cooperation: How (un-)informed are private donors?

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  • Nunnenkamp, Peter
  • Öhler, Hannes

Abstract

Apart from scaling up foreign aid by NGOs, informed choices of private donors could also encourage an efficient and targeted use of NGO funds in international development cooperation. We assess the determinants of private donations across a large sample of US based NGOs with foreign aid activities. OLS and 2SLS estimations indicate that donors hardly make use of publicly available information on NGO characteristics, notably the 'price of giving' and the degree of specialization, when deciding on donations. They rather rely on the frequently offered option to designate donations to preferred purposes - even though this behavior would be rational only under conditions that are unlikely to hold.

Suggested Citation

  • Nunnenkamp, Peter & Öhler, Hannes, 2011. "Donations to US based NGOs in international development cooperation: How (un-)informed are private donors?," Kiel Working Papers 1680, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:ifwkwp:1680
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    Cited by:

    1. Meer, Jonathan, 2014. "Effects of the price of charitable giving: Evidence from an online crowdfunding platform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 113-124.
    2. Peter Nunnenkamp & Hannes Öhler & Tillmann Schwörer, 2011. "US based NGOs in International Development Cooperation: Survival of the Fittest?," Courant Research Centre: Poverty, Equity and Growth - Discussion Papers 83, Courant Research Centre PEG.
    3. Metzger, Laura, 2015. "Making an impact? The importance of aid effectiveness for charitable giving. A laboratory experiment," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112835, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Non-governmental organizations; specialization; private donations; informed choices; price of giving; option to designate;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L31 - Industrial Organization - - Nonprofit Organizations and Public Enterprise - - - Nonprofit Institutions; NGOs; Social Entrepreneurship
    • F35 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Foreign Aid
    • D80 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - General

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